BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - March 2, 2020 - People across Minnesota and the country who need mental health services continue to struggle to find a doctor or get an appointment, not to mention actually realizing improvements in their conditions. But a new partnership between the Minnesota Health Action Group (The Action Group) and AiRCare Health is hoping to change that by offering AiRCare's solution for mental health to Minnesota employers. Companies in Minnesota that implement this solution through this first-of-its-kind partnership will have access to information about mental health care and benefits across the state that will be used to raise the bar on the care experience for individuals and families while improving outcomes and costs.

According to Deb Krause, vice president of The Action Group, this new product partnership is another building block in the organization's focus on driving measurable improvements in mental health care. The collaboration aims to help Minnesotans get fast access to mental health services when they need it (and more specifically, the ability to successfully schedule same-day appointments with a behavioral health clinician), while improving short- and long-term outcomes related to remission from depression and anxiety.

"The hard data and personal stories from patients are plentiful, and they all point to the same conclusion – while progress is being made to improve mental health care in our state, there is still much, much work to be done," said Krause. "Helping people get fast access to the right level of care is the first step to better outcomes. And by bringing together the research and collaborative efforts of The Action Group with the personal support and powerful analytics that AiRCare delivers, we believe we can create a next-generation use of data to measure and influence what really matters to people who need mental health care and the organizations that sponsor employee benefits."




According to the partner organizations, visibility into trend data is essential to improving outcomes for mental health conditions. For example, data registries have existed for various disease states – such as heart disease and cancer – across the country for years, helping physicians understand specific patient populations and conditions, utilization of services, and outcomes. This is not the case for mental health conditions, for which little collective data exists. But the partnership between The Action Group and AiRCare aims to address this by garnering private sector collaboration and driving transparency into the state of mental health care across Minnesota.

Contact
Barbara Tabor, APR / (651) 230-9192
barbara@taborpr.com